Jeremiyah Love's Versatile Upside. 2026 Rookie RBs—Tiers 1-2
The 2026 RB class is top-heavy. And that top-heavy nature is driven by one prospect: Jeremiyah Love.
Love is clearly the RB1 in the class. He's also the consensus Superflex 1.01. And in early best ball ADP, he's the most expensive rookie by a wide margin. The main debate surrounding Love's NFL draft stock is whether he will go top 15, top 10, or top 5. Regardless, he'll be drafted early.
Love isn't a perfect prospect, but he's a genuinely excellent one. From a real life persepctive, I'm open to arguments that he's an even better prospect than Ashton Jeanty. Love offers breakaway rushing ability and electric receiving versatility. If you're going to spend premium NFL draft capital on a running back—an extremely questionable team-building approach—Love at least has the type of profile that could take a good team to another level of offensive potency.
However, as a fantasy prospect, I think Ashton Jeanty, a college workhorse with instant three-down viability in the NFL, was a meaningfully stronger bet than Love is. Still, Love is a very worthy RB1 in virtually any class.
Unfortunately, after Love... we're looking at backs that profile more as premium dart throws than as confident rookie swings. Jadarian Price is a potential exception, but you have to squint a bit on his profile, given that he spent his college career backing up Love at Notre Dame.
With an unimpressive college resume, Price is primarily a bet on NFL draft capital. And disappointingly, that fits within the larger trend of this RB class.
It's possible that there ends up being a big faller in the NFL draft, and therefore, a true statistical sleeper. But as things currently stand, it would not surprise me if every non-Love RB in the top 200 of the NFL draft ends up having a weaker statistical profile than we'd expect for their draft capital.
The chart below shows the 2025 and 2026 RB classes. I've removed draft capital from my RB model to create Legend Index, which measures the statistical strength of these RB profiles. I then plotted that against draft capital.
At best, we're talking about guys that are expected to be drafted roughly in line with their statistical profiles. At worst, we're talking about major reaches—from a purely statistical perspective.
Put another way, this is a class that requires us to bet on the NFL's enthusiasm for these RBs more so than what they did in college... and the NFL isn't that enthusiastic about these RBs.
This isn't to say that there can't be winners from this group. Currently, there are several wide-open NFL backfields. For example, even a mediocre rookie could make an immediate impact if he lands in Seattle. And year after year, we see rookie RBs emerge from the later rounds or even the undrafted ranks to offer spot start utility at a minimum.
Still, the depth of this class is a genuine weakness. Generally, this is a class where it's best to keep our capital investment low. However, there are two very interesting players at the top of this class... who shared a backfield at Notre Dame.
Tier 1 - Nearly Generational
Jeremiyah Love
At a Glance
Jeremiyah Love is the consensus rookie 1.01 in whatever form of dynasty you happen to play, and for good reason. He's an electric playmaker as both a runner and receiver. His low-volume college resume makes him a slightly riskier investment than recent elite RB prospects, but he's still a very strong bet, especially over a multi-season window.
